River nodded and turned her attention back to painting her sign. Pushing the brown paint to the side, she dipped her brush in the red and slowly curved an 'R' onto the far left of the sign. For the 'I', she used blue, the 'V' she used a green colour – yellow and blue mixed together, for the 'E' she used blue again and for the second 'R' she used red, once again.
Kaylee meanwhile, had finished writing her name in red paint and had begun to draw flowers along the border and small yellow stars. She paused for a moment to admire her work.
"Very pretty," River murmured to her.
"Thanks! You're is great, too!" Kaylee beamed. She continued with her sign, finishing the last few stars and putting her brush to the side.
"I'm all done!" She proclaimed happily. She stood up and carefully carried her sign over to a patch of newspapers that lay strewn on the floor out of the way of the crew. Placing it down, she took a moment to appreciate it. It was a lot brighter than her last sign and would make a perfect addition to her room.
River watched her, her lip curved into a small smile.
Finally, the mechanic broke her gaze from her artwork and returned to River's side. She retrieved her soiled paintbrush from the ground and scrunched up the newspaper she'd been leaning on. Chewing her bottom lip thoughtfully, she glanced up at the girl.
"River? I'm jus' gonna wash up this," she explained, gesturing to the paintbrush. "I'll be back before you can blink."
Without another word, she was off. River stared after her until she disappeared into the hall, before solemnly returning to her sign. In next to no time, she was finished. Her name was printed neatly across the timber and miniature versions of pinecones danced around the border. Thin tendrils of green stemmed between the pinecones and gave an unsettling resemblance to a strawberry plant. Except that instead of strawberries, there were pinecones.
Nodding her head appreciatively, River copied Kaylee's moves and put her sign to the side to dry. She was about to go and wash her paintbrush when a sudden thought came to her. Not long later, she had a plan formulated in her mind. A cocky grin found its way onto the girls' face and she set about putting her plan into action.
